Dhaka: Bangaladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of vanquished former premier Khalida Zia and her key poll ally, fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), are to part ways after their grouping s drubbing in the December 29 general election.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami will now work from their own standpoint, BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain told newsmen last night.
Without any further elaboration Hossain said the alliance was formed for electoral purposes only and now all the components of the four parties involved, will work from their respective platforms.
JI, which opposed Bangladesh's 1971 independence siding with the then Pakistani junta, was also a crucial partner of the BNP-led four-party government during its 2001-2006 tenure when JI chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojihid held important portfolios.
The four-party alliance had won the 2001 elections with two thirds majority.
But the combine conceded a humiliating defeat in the last month's landmark polls in which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won over three fourths of the 300-seat parliament.
Several analysts attributed the BNP's astonishing defeat on its partnership with JI. The elections came amid an intensified campaign for and against the 1971 war criminals, which included several JI leaders also.
